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Lastly, at the opposite end is a little pit, the sign of the anal pore. Of the six pseudochrysalids which a lucky accident placed at my disposal, four were dead; the other two were furnished by Zonitis mutica. This justified my forecast, which from the first, with analogy for my guide, made me attribute these curious organizations to the genus Zonitis.
Never mind: let's go back to our sand-hill and dig and have another search. I must have the larva that comes before the pseudochrysalis; I must, if possible, have the insect that comes out of it." Success responded amply to our zeal. We found a goodly number of pseudochrysalids. More often still, we unearthed larvæ which were busy eating the Mantes, the rations of the Tachytes.
The last pair is rather smaller than the rest, a peculiarity which we have already noted in the larva which precedes the pseudochrysalis. On comparing the pseudochrysalids of the Oil-beetles and Sitares, we observe a most striking similarity between the two. The same structure occurs in both, down to the smallest details.
We find on either side the same cephalic masks, the same tubercles occupying the place of the legs, the same distribution and the same number of stigmata and, lastly, the same colour, the same rigidity of the integuments. The only points of difference are in the general appearance, which is not the same in the two pseudochrysalids, and in the covering formed by the cast skin of the late larva.
And now see to what curious inferences this lack of observations made at the due moment may lead us. We collect some pseudochrysalids and heap them in a glass jar in all possible positions.
The few nymphs which I obtained about the middle of June shrivelled up without attaining the perfect form. Some pseudochrysalids remained on my hands without showing any sign of approaching transformation. I attributed this delay to lack of warmth.
If it be favoured by chance, it will eat according to the measure of its hunger and will attain the full development of which its race allows; if it wander about without finding anything, it will fast and will remain small. This would explain the differences which I note in both the grubs and the pseudochrysalids, differences amounting in linear dimensions to a hundred per cent and more.
Apart from the general configuration, it will be seen that we have here the strikingly characteristic appearance of the pseudochrysalids of the Sitares, Oil-beetles and Zonites.
Under the cloth cover, which, owing to its colour, favours the absorption of heat, the temperature, during the day-time, became that of an oven; and yet the pseudochrysalids persisted in remaining stationary. The end of July was near and nothing indicated a speedy hatching.
But, when the pseudochrysalids are placed higgledy-piggledy in a box or jar, all those which are upside down will later contain inverted larvæ or nymphs. After four changes of form so profound as those which I have described, one might reasonably expect to find some modifications of the internal organization.
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